Czech words for persons, places, and things (nouns) are classified as masculine, feminine, or neuter. Adjectives used to describe the singular and plural forms of Czech words must have the proper masculine, feminine, or neuter endings:

Czech words for persons, places, and things (nouns) are classified as masculine, feminine, or neuter. Adjectives used to describe the singular and plural forms of Czech words must have the proper masculine, feminine, or neuter endings:

In order to find and use specific types of Czech records, you will need to know some key words in Czech. This section gives key genealogical terms in English with Czech translations. For example, in the first column you will find the English word ''marriage''. In the second column you will find Czech words with meanings such as ''marry, marriage, wedding, wedlock, unite, legitimate, joined'', and other words used in Czech records to indicate marriage.

In order to find and use specific types of Czech records, you will need to know some key words in Czech. This section gives key genealogical terms in English with Czech translations. For example, in the first column you will find the English word ''marriage''. In the second column you will find Czech words with meanings such as ''marry, marriage, wedding, wedlock, unite, legitimate, joined'', and other words used in Czech records to indicate marriage.

Introduction

The Czech Republic Genealogical Word List contains Czech words and their English translations for many words that are found in documents used to research Czech ancestors. Click here for the PDF version of the Czech Genealogical Word List.

If the word (or some form of it) you are looking for is not on this list, please consult a Czech-English dictionary. See the Additional Resources section below.

Czech is a Slavic language derived from the West Slavic language family. Czech is related to Slovak and Polish and is used in the genealogical sources throughout the Czech Republic. Czech is the language of the Czech Republic and was the official language in the Czech lands of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia in the former Czechoslovakia. In addition, the Czech language may be found in the records of Czech communities in the United States, Canada, and other areas settled by Czechs.

Before 1918, the Czech lands were provinces of Austria, which, together with Hungary, constituted the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Records written before 1918 may be in German, Latin, or Czech. Czech records often contain German and Latin words. See the German Genealogical Word List and the Latin Genealogical Word List.

Language Characteristics

Variant Forms of Words

In Czech, the forms of most words will vary according to how they are used in a sentence. Who, whose, whom, or marry, marries, married are examples of words in English with variant forms. In Czech, any word may have different forms, depending on how it is used. This word list gives the standard form of each Czech word. The endings of Czech words in a document often differ from what you find in this list.

Surnames

Surnames will have the added ending -ová or -á if the person referred to is female:

SurnameNovákPlevaNovotný

+ female endingNovákováPlevováNovotná

Gender

Czech words for persons, places, and things (nouns) are classified as masculine, feminine, or neuter. Adjectives used to describe the singular and plural forms of Czech words must have the proper masculine, feminine, or neuter endings:

starý mužstará ženastaré město

old manold womanold city

staří mužistaré ženystará města

old menold womenold cities

This word list gives only the singular masculine form of adjectives. Thus, starý, stará, staré, and staří (all forms of “old”) are listed here as starý.

The endings of past tense verbs also change, depending on the gender and number of the subject:

narodil senarodila senarodilo senarodili(y) se

he was bornshe was bornit (the child) was bornthey were born

This word list gives only the narodil se (“he was born”) form of the past tense verb. You can conclude that narodila se means “she was born,” etc.

Plurals

Plural forms of Czech words usually change the singular word:

Words ending in -a change to -y:žena woman / wife ženy women / wives

Words ending in -o change to -a:město city města cities

Words ending in -e and -í do not change:ulice street ulice streets

Words ending in a consonant add -y. A few words add -i, -ové, or -e to form the plural:

listmuž

pageman

listymuži

pagesmen

The plural form may change the basic word:

dítěbratrzámek

childbrotherpalace

dětibratřizámky

childrenbrotherspalaces

Grammatical Use

The endings of Czech words can also vary, depending on the grammatical use of the words. Czech grammar requires a different ending for a word used as a subject, a possessive, an object, or with a preposition. Czech words fall into several classes, each with its own set of grammatical endings. Certain possessive endings give the meaning “of” to a word.

Nouns change the endings to show possession.

Nouns ending with a consonant add -a or -e:

bratrmuž

brotherman

bratramuže

of brotherof man

Nouns ending with -a add -y:sestra sister sestry of sister

Nouns ending with -o add -a:město city města of city

Plural masculine nouns change to -ů:muži husbands mužů of husbands

Plural feminine or neuter nouns drop the last vowel:ženy wife žen of wives

Adjectives change the endings to show possession.

Adjectives ending in -ý change to -ého:narozený born narozeného of the born

Adjectives ending in -á change to -é:křtěná baptized křtěné of the baptized

Adjectives ending in -é change to -ého:neznámé unknown neznámého of the unknown

Adjectives ending in -í change to -ího:první first prvního of the first

Alphabetical Order

Written Czech uses several letters in addition to the 26 letters used in the English alphabet: á, č, ď, é, ě, í, ň, ó, ř, š, ť, ,ú, ů, ý, ž. The letter combination ch is also considered a single letter and is alphabetized after h. Letters q, w, and x are used only in words of foreign origin. Czech dictionaries and indexes use the following alphabetical order:

This word list follows the standard English alphabetical order. However, when you work with alphabetized Czech records, use the Czech alphabetical order.

Spelling

Spelling rules were not standardized in earlier centuries. In Czech, the following spelling variations are common:

i, y and j used interchangeablys and z used interchangeablyw used for vrz used for řsz used for šcz used for č

Czech is a phonetic language, which means words are pronounced as they are written.

Additional Resources

This word list includes the words most commonly found in genealogical sources. For further help, use a Czech-English dictionary. Several are available at the Family History Library in the European collection. The call numbers begin with 491.86321. The following dictionary is helpful when you do genealogical research and is available through most bookstores which carry Czech books:

Additional dictionaries are listed in the Subject section of the Family History Library Catalog under CZECH LANGUAGE—DICTIONARIES or in the Locality section under CZECH REPUBLIC—LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES. These include other dictionaries and language helps, such as Czech grammar books.

Key Words

In order to find and use specific types of Czech records, you will need to know some key words in Czech. This section gives key genealogical terms in English with Czech translations. For example, in the first column you will find the English word marriage. In the second column you will find Czech words with meanings such as marry, marriage, wedding, wedlock, unite, legitimate, joined, and other words used in Czech records to indicate marriage.

General Word List

This general word list includes words commonly seen in genealogical sources. Numbers, months, and days of the week are listed both here and in separate sections that follow this list. In this list, optional versions of Czech words or variable endings (such as some plural or feminine endings) are given in parentheses. Some Czech phrases and their translations are listed [in brackets] under the most significant Czech word, not the first word, of the phrase. Words in parentheses in the English column clarify the definition.

Numbers

In some genealogical records, numbers are spelled out. This is especially true with dates. The following list gives the cardinal (1, 2, 3) and the ordinal (1st, 2nd, 3rd) versions of each number. In actual usage, days of the month are written in ordinal form with a possessive grammatical ending. In the following list, the ordinal number in its standard form is given first, followed by the possessive form (in some cases only the possessive ending is listed):

Date and Time

To understand Czech dates, use the following lists as well as the preceding “Numbers” section. In Czech records, dates are occasionally spelled out. Dates are usually given with possessive grammatical endings:

dvacátého osmého srpna, jeden tisíc osm setpadesát dva

[on the twenty-eighth of August, one thousand eight hundred fifty and two] 28 August 1852

Months of the Year

Czech dates are always given in day-month-year order. Months are often abbreviated using a Roman numeral.